ERIC EJ1061088: Tailoring University Counselling Services to Aboriginal and International Students: Lessons from Native and International Student Centres at a Canadian University

2015·0.18 MB·English

by  ERIC

Counselling Aboriginal and International Students / L. H. Robertson, K. Holleran, & M. Samuels 122
CSSHE
SCÉES
Canadian Journal of Higher Education
Revue canadienne d’enseignement supérieur
Volume 45, No. 1, 2015, pages 122 - 135
Tailoring University Counselling Services
to Aboriginal and International Students:
Lessons from Native and International
Student Centres at a Canadian University
Lloyd Hawkeye Robertson
Athabasca University
Kathryn Holleran
Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board
Marilyn Samuels
University of Calgary
Abstract
Critics have suggested that the practice of psychology is based on ethnocen-
tric assumptions that do not necessarily apply to non-European cultures, re-
sulting in the underutilization of counselling centres by minority populations.
Few practical, culturally appropriate alternatives have flowed from these
concerns. This paper reviews experiences from a doctoral-level practicum in
counselling psychology that targeted aboriginal and international university
students outside of the mainstream counselling services at a western Canadi-
an university over a two-year period. It recommends an integrated approach,
combining assessment, learning strategy skills, and counselling skills while
incorporating community development methodology. The paper concludes
with recommendations for counsellor training that will enhance services to
both international and aboriginal students.
Résumé
Certaines critiques ont suggéré que la pratique de la psychologie est basée sur
des hypothèses ethnocentriques qui ne s’appliquent pas nécessairement aux
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Counselling Aboriginal and International Students / L. H. Robertson, K. Holleran, & M. Samuels 123
cultures non européennes, avec pour résultat que les centres de consultation
psychologique sont sous utilisés par les minorités ethniques. En pratique, peu
d’alternatives adaptées culturellement ont découlé de ces préoccupations. Ce
texte passe en revue l’expérience d’un practicum de niveau de doctorat sur
la thérapie psychologique qui visait des étudiants universitaires autochtones
ou étrangers à l’extérieur du réseau traditionnel des services de thérapie
dans une université de l’ouest canadien sur une période de deux ans. Il
recommande une approche intégrée combinant évaluation, compétences en
stratégie d’apprentissage, et compétences de conseillers tout en incorporant
une méthodologie de développement communautaire. Le texte conclut par
des recommandations pour de la formation de thérapeutes qui va améliorer
les services aux étudiants autochtones et étrangers.
International and students aboriginal to North America underutilize university coun-
selling services as compared to North American students of European ancestry (Dolan,
1995; Snider, 2001). International students face personal challenges specific to cultural
differences, and they often perceive university counselling services to be unsympathetic
to their traditions, values, or experiences (Arthur, 2004; Bellini, 2003; Fowler, Glen-
wright, Bhatia, & Drapeau, 2011). Some international students come from a history of
dispossession and oppression, but others are from families with privileged positions in
their home cultures. All may experience cultural dislocation, with accompanying threats
to self-validation (Arthur, 2003; Ishiyama, 1995). The foil often used to situate and define
these “home” or “traditional” cultures is “western,” a term that loosely refers to cultures
descended from or associated with 19th-century European and U.S. American colonial-
ism, with the added cumulative effects of modernity—largely associated with scientific,
technological and commercial change. While the use of this construct is often problem-
atic with respect to clarity of definition and application, it is used here to represent those
forces associated with Euro-American civilization perceived as potentially overwhelming
to those cultures regarded as “traditional” on the basis of having comparatively long-
standing traditions. Thus, the study of psychology as it evolved in the western tradition,
having no direct analogue in cultures defined as “traditional,” is often viewed as unsup-
portive of those cultural traditions.
“Western” counselling has also been perceived as not relevant or sympathetic to cul-
tures indigenous to the American continents (McCormick, 1996; Poonwassie & Charter,
2001; Sojonky, 2010). Aboriginal students come to university with the historical legacy
of community-destroying colonialism (Duran & Duran, 1995; Ray, 1996). During the 20th
century in Canada, aboriginal children were commonly isolated from community and fam-
ily through forced attendance at residential schools (Robertson, 2006; Stout & Kipling,
2003), with an accompanying increase in social and psychological problems (Brasfield,
2001; Wesley-Esquimaux & Smolewski, 2004). The resultant legacy of distrust may con-
found efforts by institutions perceived as colonial to overcome cultural differences.
Indigenization is a process whereby an imported psychology is transformed in ways
that are more appropriate to the local culture (Adair, 2006). Minority university students
constitute transient populations with fewer on-site cultural supports for identity main-
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Counselling Aboriginal and International Students / L. H. Robertson, K. Holleran, & M. Samuels 124
tenance as compared to mainstream students. Since professional counselling has been
characterized as a western or Euro-American conceptualization (Moody, 1999), we con-
sidered it instructive to compare the experience of clients from diverse backgrounds who
are culturally non-western, within organizations mandated to deliver targeted support to
those populations.
While the process of counselling may have been subsumed in other roles in traditional
societies (Korhonen, 2002), the professionalization of counselling that occurred in Euro-
American cultures resulted in many westerners being culturally prepared to access coun-
sellors and therapists from agencies established for this purpose. The comparative lack of
cultural preparedness in traditional societies could inhibit the development of the thera-
peutic alliance in those minority populations. Since a stable early therapeutic alliance is
important for successful outcomes (Hersoug, Hoglend, Havik, & Monsen, 2010), people
unfamiliar with the assumptions of counselling are disadvantaged. By offering services in
culturally friendly settings, we were attempting to overcome barriers of unfamiliarity and
possible distrust of foreign institutions.
Research Design
This study is a qualitative description of the experience of offering counselling services
at the Native Student Centre and the International Student Centre at a mid-sized Canadi-
an university. Two doctoral students in counselling psychology provided the service, one
in each year of the two-year program. The counsellor in the first year of the program was a
male Métis in his 50s, and the second-year counsellor was a female Euro-Canadian in her
30s. Both were experienced counsellors prior to their enrolment in the doctoral program,
and both were trained in cognitive-behavioural methods, with the first-year counsellor
also trained in Adlerian psychotherapy.
Professional supervision was provided by a doctoral psychologist from the university’s
Disability Resource Centre who was also affiliated with the university’s Department of
Applied Psychology. Central to the design of the project was the weekly involvement of
the Native Student and International Student centres in reviewing the activities of the
counsellors and suggesting contextual community issues impacting on the respective
populations that could affect individuals and their counselling needs.
The mandate of the Native Student Centre was to provide a culturally appropriate
environment supporting aboriginal students by sharing funding and program informa-
tion, providing assistance in class selection, promoting mutual self-help, and providing
cultural events based on First Nations (Amerindian), Métis, and Inuit traditions. The
International Student Centre played a similar role of supporting international student
achievement by providing workshops on adapting to Canadian cultural norms and ex-
pectations, taking English language classes, selecting classes and courses, and accessing
funding possibilities. Neither centre had offered professional counselling services prior to
accepting a doctoral-level counselling psychologist practicum placement.
At the beginning of each year of the program, the counsellor was introduced to po-
tential clients at meetings of both the Native and International Student centres, and the
counsellors offered workshops at both centres on building academic success. Office space
was provided at both locations, but the counsellor’s two days per week were flexibly al-
located, depending on demand.
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Counselling Aboriginal and International Students / L. H. Robertson, K. Holleran, & M. Samuels 125
Although the regular university counselling service did not keep data on the racial back-
grounds of their clients, we were told that they had very few clients from the targeted popu-
lations. Regular use of the new service by aboriginal and international students would be
an indication of an unmet need that was now, to some extent, being filled; we therefore
considered it a measure of success. In addition, both counsellors provided qualitative de-
scriptions of case data for the purpose of comparing and contrasting targeted populations.
Results
Twenty-three clients (14 native students and nine international students) used the
counselling service during its first year of operation, with aboriginal students having al-
most twice as many sessions per client (5.93) as international students (3.00). The clients
included 13 women and 10 men. The average length of each counselling session was 1.33
hours. Lengthy sessions (more than one hour) occurred when students were in crisis;
when longer sessions, involving aboriginal storytelling methods, were planned; or when
longer sessions were required to complete a psychometric assessment. For example, one
international student requested an assessment prior to a disciplinary hearing, and that
session took three hours. Table 1 compares international and aboriginal students with
respect to their presenting issues.
Nine international students presented with 11 issues for counselling, an average of
1.2 presenting issues per student. The 14 aboriginal students presented with 27 issues,
for an average of 1.9 issues per client. The counsellor often did his academic work at the
Native Centre office, thus increasing his availability at that centre. In a culture where in-
formal relationships are valued, students frequently made initial contact to “size up” the
counsellor before requesting an appointment. Very few aboriginal students booked ap-
pointments through the receptionist. No international students were observed “dropping
by” for a chat, although international students and the counsellor did engage in informal
exchanges in the international student lounge.
While the total number of clients increased slightly to 25, fewer men and more women
accessed the service during the project’s second year, resulting in a sex ratio of more than
2:1 (17 women, eight men). Further, more international students than aboriginal students
accessed the counselling service during its second year. The average length of each coun-
selling session increased slightly to 1.5 hours. Aboriginal students typically presented
with one of the following issues: learning strategies, academic interventions, addictions,
and anger management. Presenting concerns for international students included com-
municating with family members in their home country and adjusting to life in Canada.
Although both groups of students often initiated counselling with one particular concern
(such as study skills), additional issues were often added after two or three sessions. It
could be that as these clients experienced positive results involving an initial issue, they
gained trust in both the counsellor and the process of counselling, prompting them to
present more emotionally laden issues. Counsellor characteristics may influence client
receptiveness to the helping experience (Atkinson, Poston, Furlong, & Mercado, 1989;
Bellini, 2003). The slight increase in female and international students during the second
year of the project may have been influenced by the gender and race differences between
the two therapists. Similar ethnicity appeared to be more important to Amerindian than
to Caucasian students, particularly those with a stronger sense of involvement with Amer-
ican Indian culture (Bennett & BigFoot-Sipes, 1991).
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Counselling Aboriginal and International Students / L. H. Robertson, K. Holleran, & M. Samuels 126
Table 1
Presenting issues of international and aboriginal students during year one of the coun-
selling service
Issue International Aboriginal Totals
Students Students
Relationship issues 3 7 10
Academic, learning problems, ADD 2 6 8
Sexuality, sexual identity 2 3 5
Discrimination, cross-cultural conflict 1 4 5
Stress/anxiety 1 3 4
Life skills, finding “self” in relation to goals 2 1 3
Depression, lack of self-efficacy 0 3 3
As in the first year of the project, none of the aboriginal students booked appoint-
ments through the receptionist. They would visit the counsellor in person or send her an
email requesting an appointment. The counsellor often had lunch in the Native Centre
student lounge, which aided in her accessibility to aboriginal students. She was directly
and formally introduced to prospective clients in the International Student Centre. Often
the student advisor in the International Centre would ask for the counsellor’s attendance
at an advisory session, allowing the international student to meet the counsellor prior to
booking a counselling session. After the initial appointment, all the international students
preferred arranging appointment times by sending an email to the counsellor. When the
students booked appointments directly with the counsellor, they tended to show up, and
the counsellor experienced very few no-shows throughout the course of the year.
The experience of both counsellors was congruent with a hypothesis that some stu-
dents were unfamiliar or uncomfortable with formal booking procedures involving a re-
ceptionist, an intake worker, and eventual assignment to a counsellor, a system used by
most counselling agencies. They modified the intake procedure in ways that enhanced
their levels of comfort and personalized the process, resulting in increased commitment
to engaging with the counsellor.
Qualitative Descriptions of the Aboriginal and International Students Served
As will be evident in the following examples, many international and aboriginal clients
assigned the counsellors roles that were culturally familiar. Further, counselling methods
were negotiated with each client and adaptations made to accommodate the client’s cul-
tural norms. It was not assumed that practices apparently effective with one client would
necessarily translate to another client, even within the same cultural group.
In keeping with their cultural background, some aboriginal clients favoured telling
their story in a traditional manner that was non-linear, holistic, and time-consuming.
In anticipation of the client-centred benefits of such culturally friendly interaction, the
counsellors discarded the “50-minute hour” favoured by most counselling agencies. Cli-
ents frequently expressed their appreciation that the service was provided according to
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Counselling Aboriginal and International Students / L. H. Robertson, K. Holleran, & M. Samuels 127
their own traditions. In one case, the first-year counsellor was offered tobacco—an hon-
our normally afforded traditional elders. Similarly, international students frequently of-
fered thank-you gifts at the end of the counselling sessions.
Despite the need to negotiate and clarify client and counsellor roles and expectations,
we also found evidence of cross-cultural similarities. One-third of the international stu-
dents counselled presented with relationship issues. In one case, it was a long-distance
relationship. His fiancée was in an Asian country and now was living and working in dif-
ferent circles than when they had been students together. How could he communicate
his insecurities along with his hopes and dreams in ways that she would understand? He
could have been a 20-year-old from any culture.
One young woman grappled with distance of another kind. She had fallen in love with
a Canadian who was of a different religion. There was no chance that her family would
approve. Another young woman discovered on coming to Canada that she was more in-
terested in establishing relationships and self-exploration than in academic studies. She
became part of a small community of friends and gave the money that was to go toward
her books, lodging, and tuition to help people in that community. A “love triangle” led to
the disintegration of friendships upon which that community was based, and the client
was left wondering how she was going to pay her father back the money he had invested
in her education.
After a successful first semester, a young man from a middle-eastern country decided
to party rather than remain studious. He failed or withdrew from all his classes in the
next two semesters and was evicted from the student residence after his parties resulted
in numerous complaints and one police intervention. He now faced the difficult task of
salvaging something from this educational experience before returning home.
Several of the international students who accessed the program during its second
year also experienced difficulties with the “new-found freedom” that living in Canada and
studying in a less structured environment offered. For instance, several male students
from middle-eastern countries had never experienced unstructured time on the Inter-
net. In the new, unmonitored environment, their post-secondary studies suffered because
they spent several hours per day gaming and viewing pornographic websites.
The most common issues presented by aboriginal clients during the first year of the
project also involved relationships. Clients of both sexes reported partners or spouses who
were unsupportive of their education, resulting in problems with childcare and finances.
Three clients said visits from unruly family and friends precipitated academic difficulties.
For some clients, this represented a conflict between their identity as an aboriginal person
and their identity as a student.
Two aboriginal students requested testing for learning disabilities, motivated by the
understanding that with such a diagnosis they could receive extra time to write exams
and technical support such as computers. Their problem turned out to be not a learning
disability but a weakness with the English language. As with many international students,
aboriginal students who grew up speaking their native language, or a non-standard form
of English, faced extra difficulties when confronted with university-level English.
Clients sometimes alluded to cultural barriers that inhibited them from accessing
standard counselling services. One international student said he had thought of seeking
therapy for disturbing sexual dreams for more than three years, but he took the concrete
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step to request help only when he saw the service offered at the International Student
Centre. An aboriginal student said that he could not have discussed his issues, which
involved questioning his culture, with a non-aboriginal counsellor. Another aboriginal
student said that she had gone to the campus counselling centre for one session but was
unsatisfied due to what she perceived as impersonal service. After having determined that
she was “never going back,” she happened to pass by the counsellor’s office in the Native
Centre, introduced herself, and after a brief chat made an appointment. This was the be-
ginning of a satisfying counselling relationship.
Eight of the 23 clients seen during the first year of this program presented with aca-
demic or learning difficulties, and this trend continued into the second year of the study.
Although this is not surprising, given the academic setting, counselling is often seen as
a distinct service, separate from that provided by educational psychologists. Counselling
agencies frequently re-refer students with academic concerns to an outside psychometri-
cian for further testing, and the client returns wearing a diagnostic label. Further, clini-
cal psychology is often seen as a separate discipline, from which the client may obtain
a separate set of labels. “Diagnostic labels locate the causes of the problem within the
individual; this may foreclose consideration of the societal context and interpersonal rela-
tions as sources of unhappiness or dysfunction” (Hare-Mustin & Marecek, 1997 p. 109).
The problems inherent in such a fractured approach may be magnified cross-culturally,
as became apparent in the following account.
Integrating Holism into Practise: An Illustrative Case
“Francine” agreed to have her case used illustratively, providing she was given a pseud-
onym. Nonessential details have been eliminated or changed to further protect confiden-
tiality.
Francine was an aboriginal woman who had been placed in special education classes
during grade school. She was diagnosed with a psychiatric illness as a youth, and she
made few friends. Shy and withdrawn, she felt alienated from the people in her home
reserve community. She completed Grade 12 in an adult upgrading program and enrolled
in university because she did not think she was suited for any work that she might enjoy,
and she “did not know what else to do.”
Francine approached the Disability Resource Centre (DRC) on campus, concerned
that she had a learning disability. A native studies class required that she write an es-
say; since she did not feel competent at that task, she stopped attending. She reported
to the DRC, “As a learner, to describe myself, I can only see my difficulties and disap-
pointments.” The DRC proposed a collaborative approach that would allow Francine to
see herself as a whole or a totality with strengths, as opposed to a fragmented individual
defined by her weaknesses, many of which were poorly understood in isolation.
Although this practicum was in counselling psychology, the counsellor had a back-
ground in ability testing. The practicum supervisor therefore proposed that the student
be guided in dynamic assessment, an approach that demonstrates to clients both their
strengths in learning and what they can do to perform better, thus forming a bridge be-
tween assessment and counselling. Further, the practicum student also had a background
in mental health and was familiar with the condition with which the client had been previ-
ously diagnosed.
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Counselling Aboriginal and International Students / L. H. Robertson, K. Holleran, & M. Samuels 129
In accordance with the client’s presenting issue, the treatment plan began with a
psycho-educational assessment. During the course of two months, Francine was admin-
istered Raven’s Progressive Matrices, the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, the Wood-
cock-Johnson Tests of Achievement, the Nelson-Denny Comprehension subtest, Rey’s
Complex Figure, the Organizer Test (Feuerstein, Hoffman, & Rand, 1979), and the Ra-
ven’s again, used dynamically. The assessment process was not smooth and continuous.
Although Francine had not been clinically diagnosed with depression or anxiety, there
were times when she presented with sufficient symptoms that she could not continue with
planned activities. On such occasions, the counsellor would stop the planned assessment
work and deal with the presenting symptoms using cognitive-behavioural techniques. It
was thought that failure to suspend assessment at those times would have resulted in an
artificially low estimate of ability.
Francine was on antipsychotic medication, and her understanding was that her con-
dition was “a paranoid illness with a chemical imbalance.” She heard voices telling her
things, sometimes coming from radios. In many aboriginal cultures, such voices are in-
terpreted to be evil spirits or visions (good spirits). Given the content of the voices, Fran-
cine concluded they were more like evil spirits and that their voices could be either ar-
gued against rationally or ignored. Such externalization is a feature of narrative therapy
(White, 1993).
Narrative approaches are also compatible with the aboriginal tradition of storytell-
ing. Francine’s story was one of being teased and isolated as a child. Through tears she
explained that she was afraid of her own people, even at the university. Counselling in-
cluded a retelling of that story through the eyes of a newly empowered adult helped by
the assessment process. Dynamic assessment includes the teaching of strategies to solve
problems, and when Francine demonstrated to herself how quickly she was able to learn
a strategy that allowed her to master a set on the Raven’s, she was more willing to learn
new strategies to cope with her academic and social problems.
Francine exhibited a personal strength in perceptual organization, coupled with weak-
nesses in making inferential responses. Her pattern of scores in the ability tests, along
with her school history, weak reading comprehension, difficulties with executive func-
tioning, and reported difficulties communicating in her native language all supported a
hypothesis of a verbal learning disability. A number of recommendations were made to
ameliorate the conditions of that disability, including provisions for accommodative sup-
port and assistive technology. More importantly, Francine learned that she could be de-
fined by her strengths and that she had the ability to succeed in university.
During the second year of the program, Francine continued to work with the new
counsellor on academic strategies and personal concerns using the flexible and adaptable
approach modelled during the first year. On several occasions, a pressing personal con-
cern was Francine’s main focus, while on other days her attention was centred on her aca-
demic studies. Several of the academic-focused sessions addressed specific skills, ranging
from formatting papers to editing work to dictionary skills, study skills, and working with
abstract concepts. She encountered success in her studies throughout the second year of
the program. With perseverance and appropriate support, Francine has now successfully
completed her university degree program.
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Specialization carries the risk of fragmentation. Francine had engaged the services of
a series of specialists (clinical, counselling, and educational psychologists) prior to this
counselling experience, and the resultant fragmentary understanding of her person fo-
cused on deficiencies while failing to address central issues of her being. This left her with
inadequate skills for understanding and addressing her life situation. Psychology has not
always operated so reductionistically. Alfred Adler, for example, viewed the individual to
be a “unity” (1967; Thomas & Marchant, 1993). He held that the therapist, to be effective,
must understand the total individual, including his or her cultural context. He also pio-
neered the practice of multiple therapists working together in an integrated fashion with
the same client (Mosak, 1979), and this approach has been extended to narrative therapy
(Haley, 2002).
Situating the Client in Community and Historical Contexts
We have seen how community and historical factors contributed to the set of issues
Francine brought to counselling. Two additional aboriginal clients expressed strongly felt
negative opinions about aboriginality due to their personal negative experiences involv-
ing family and community, which had led the individuals to isolate themselves from their
home communities. A fourth client spent successive weekends on her home reserve at-
tempting to help her people in a codependent manner, with a resultant cost to her studies.
By combining historical and community development perspectives, these clients were able
to attach meaning to their experiences. Two became actively and productively involved in
the community surrounding the Native Centre on campus. Another redefined herself as
part of a collectivity and placed boundaries on her participation in that collectivity.
In contrast with our aboriginal clients, international students often came from fully
functioning communities supportive of their education. Separated from these supportive
and directive communities, some international clients engaged in hedonistic, self-destruc-
tive behaviours, oblivious to the consequences. We examined how another client attempt-
ed to create a substitute but structurally fragile “mini-community” of friends. A middle-
eastern client reconnected culturally to his family and traditions in a way that aided the
process of therapy. He had recurrent nightmares involving the mutilation of women to
whom he was attracted, with the result that the man, now in his 30s, had avoided contact
with women since he was 19. He had sought the advice of his religious leaders, but resul-
tant prayers and ceremonies proved ineffective. His mother offered to arrange a marriage,
but that prospect triggered increased anxiety. He turned to “western counselling” only af-
ter it was offered through the International Student Centre. During therapy, he revealed
that the nightmares pictured him without eyebrows. Initially, he did not consciously know
what eyebrows might symbolize in his culture, but a phone call to his mother resulted in
the suggestion that they represented wisdom. A reinterpretation of the dream as repre-
senting not him, but a characterization of him without wisdom, provided the breakthrough
needed to deal with childhood religious injunctions involving his sexuality.
Deferring to the client’s personal expertise also proved valuable in working with ab-
original clients. Traditional Amerindian cultures vary, and individual aboriginal people
will likely internalize a mix of cultures, both traditional and modern. The aboriginal clients
in this study reported a range of religious views, including Native Spiritual, Christian (both
fundamentalist and mainstream), and agnostic. Clients communicated their history and
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Counselling Aboriginal and International Students / L. H. Robertson, K. Holleran, & M. Samuels 131
worldview to the counsellors, who, in turn, used their expertise in the change process to
help develop alternative possibilities. Thus, counselling became a process of collaboration
between two experts co-constructing a treatment plan. One aboriginal woman surprised
the counsellor by choosing a cognitive-behavioural approach to fight depression. It had
been the counsellor’s expectation that she would choose either an Adlerian approach (in
this case, examining her family of origin) or Eye Movement Desensitization and Repro-
cessing (to deal with specific childhood traumas). She decided, however, that she wanted a
therapy that allowed her to “stay in the present,” and she made that therapy work for her.
In summation, our experience provided numerous examples supporting the notion
that validating communities are a necessary component of self-stability (Ishiyama, 1995;
Robertson, 2010). In this case, a validating community is considered to be a cultural group
that supports the self-identity of the individual. Stability is achieved when that individual
experiences a sense of temporal continuity in self-definition at a feeling level. The practice
used here involved negotiating an understanding of the client’s self in community, with
therapy grounded in that negotiation. The therapy then served to validate the selves of
the clients in question while concomitantly respecting the uniqueness of each individual.
Discussion and Recommendations
In this project, both international and native aboriginal students utilized culturally
targeted counselling services, thereby helping to offset minority populations’ underuti-
lization of traditional on-campus services. By this measure, the project was successful,
and we attribute this success to the availability of services in familiar settings and the
flexibility with which counsellors adapted their methods to the internalized individual
cultures of varied clientele. While this result supports the view that certain cross-cultural
universals exist in counselling (Korhonen, 2002; Oulanova & Moodley, 2010), it also sup-
ports the necessity of accommodating cultural differences through collaboration and ne-
gotiation (Collins & Arthur, 2007). Both aboriginal and international students preferred
making appointments directly with the counsellor instead of through an intermediary
receptionist, and this preference may indicate a desire for a personal, empathetic rela-
tionship with the counsellor. Given that the role of professional counsellor is often not
systemic to the cultures from which the target groups were drawn, it is natural that cli-
ents explored the client–counsellor relationship by attempting to define it in their own
terms. Counsellors could expect a period of negotiation with respect to the nature of that
relationship. An initial focus on academic issues, with the flexibility to deal with multiple
concerns, allowed the counselling relationship to evolve.
An overriding principle gained from this experience is the importance of interagency
cooperation and consultation. It is important to minimize the number of service provid-
ers a given client must see, and where multiple counsellors are needed, we recommend
these counsellors work together collaboratively with their clients.
Although the historical and cultural backgrounds of aboriginal and international stu-
dents are diverse, both need to draw on a sense of community while at university, and that
need may be partially met through organizations like the Native Student Centre and the
International Student Centre. It makes sense, therefore, to target services through such
agencies. We would make the following suggestions to those offering such services:
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